Author offers an inside view of Vietnam

Roundtable talk focuses on Dan FitzGibbon's book.

Roundtable talk focuses on Dan FitzGibbon's book.

April 24, 2007|VIRGINIA RANSBOTTOM Tribune Staff Writer

As an Army Special Forces captain in Vietnam, Dan FitzGibbon wrote letters home describing military operations and civil affairs in South Vietnam during 1968 and 1969. Twenty years later he typed the hand-scrawled letters to give to his children to answer questions they had about the Vietnam War. A copy was given to the Indiana Historical Society, which eventually published the letter. The author spoke about the book, "To Bear Any Burden: A Hoosier Green Beret's Letters from Vietnam," during the American Heritage Roundtable at the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library in Mishawaka. A native of Columbus, Ind., FitzGibbon was a 1964 graduate of West Point, serving in West Berlin, Germany, before volunteering for Vietnam. While commissioned in the Infantry, he earned his Ranger and Special Forces tabs and Airborne wings. As a Green Beret his primary mission was training South Vietnamese villagers as Civilian Irregular Defense Groups for counter insurgency against North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. The Fifth Special Forces Group worked alongside Vietnamese special forces at four military camps with a base at Nha Trang in South Vietnam. "Had I known the Viet Cong would be so angry with our arrival, I would have stayed home," he said in his first letter sent home to his parents. The book is an authentic, firsthand account showing humor, highlighted achievements to impress his parents, dark moments full of doubt and the mundane worries of things left undone at home. Discussing the book, FitzGibbon spoke of "the fog of war." "It's that basic level of confusion and uncertainty at the point of contact on a battlefield," he said. "It exists in any war, but in Vietnam there were no front lines, the enemy had no uniforms (except for the North Vietnamese), it was sporadically isolated and over in a few minutes." He gave combat recollections of encounters with North Vietnamese, never knowing if they were an advance party of 1,500 or an isolated squad. Or instances of using all the squad's fire power to take down a Viet Cong sentry, not knowing who they were encountering, how many, or if the grenades would bounce back from the heavy canopy of vegetation. While he said the best part of the job was helping with infrastructure of wells, sanitation and schools, he felt a lack of gratitude from the South Vietnamese villagers. "Here we were trying to help them, but they were suspicious we wanted their resources or to make a 51st state," FitzGibbon said. "But I guess that's understandable, they had been exploited for resources by their own government." An excerpt of his final letter home read, "I hope it doesn't drag on much longer and when it does end, we will remember those who were willing to 'bear any burden, pay any price,' in JFK's words, to ensure the success and survival of liberty in South Vietnam." Today, does he think it was right to be in Vietnam? "It's difficult to say," FitzGibbon said. "Yeah, we went over there with the right objectives, the purpose was noble and we bought them some time." However, he says it could have been done differently. "It should have been a political war, not a military war," he said. "When the Marines and Army came in as greater units of security, the South Vietnamese thought the Americans took over and they didn't have to worry anymore." FitzGibbon was asked if he saw a parallel between Vietnam and Iraq. "Yes," he said. "It's a quagmire." Today, FitzGibbon is an attorney with Barnes & Thornburg where he spends most of his time on international rule of law projects in the former Soviet Union, the Balkans, North Africa and the Middle East. After leaving Mishawaka, he was headed to Kosovo. All royalties from the book go to the Special Forces Association Tribute Fund for widows and children of Green Berets who were killed in action in Afghanistan and Iraq. The book is available at amazon.com.Staff writer Virginia Ransbottom: vransbottom@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6344